A Mother's Touch
by ZeroTheDestroyer
Summary: In which little Naruto likes Sasuke's mom. On Hiatus.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

A Song of Susanoo

* * *

He walked down the rainy streets, watching for any sign of danger in the lightning filled skies. Hoping desperately for no one to notice, he moved slowly, and afraid. There was shame and regret in his eyes. To be seen doing this would be utter torture in his mind.

What choice did he have when he was this hungry?

"It hurts so much," the blond told himself, "didn't know hunger could feel like this."

The boy could barely walk with the little energy he had, but he pulled through. He looked around him, left, right, up, and down, seeing if there was any danger approaching. There wasn't of course, but the boy had sensed anger nearby in all times of his life. It felt like the people of the village were always ready to let loose murderous intent on him at any moment; they were only held in check by forces that he could not explain.

"So hungry," he told himself. "I hope there's something to eat in here." He grimaced in distaste. "Probably not."

He made his way into the alley, shivering as the water seeped through his dirty orange shirt, and past his blue shorts. His grimy hands pulled up his wet blond bangs out of his eyes, so that he could get a better look at his surroundings. "It smells awful." The rotting scent of a week's worth of food lay in the dumpster in front of him, waiting for his taking. "Please, Kami, if you care about me at all, let me find something."

He slowly walked to the large green container, looking around for any rats nearby. He didn't want any of them to bite his tiny 8 year old toes; that wouldn't do at all. Rats terrified him; in them he saw vermin that carried an unexpected amount of danger in each bite. They screeched and attacked when they were afraid and only ran when they knew that the enemy would fight back. As a boy looking for food through these filthy streets, he learned to fight back—learned to win against even the bigger animals such as the foxes and even larger dogs that roamed the area.

In the distance he could hear the angry shouts of a husband and wife having an argument; this was very common in this neighborhood. The economical disaster that came after the Nine Tails attack left many families destitute, creating more slums in the village of Konoha. He should know—Uzumaki Naruto lived in the worst neighborhood of them all.

However he had no one else to blame but himself, it was him who left the orphanage after all, it was him who continued to run away from the housings the Third awarded him. Naruto, no matter where he was placed, never felt safe, never felt secure, and never felt loved.

Love.

What a word, a four letter word, a single syllable that meant so much. It contained feelings that he wasn't fully able to understand—not yet at the very least—but how he wished to feel them, to know them, to embrace that emotion that was love.

"But love won't feed me, yo," he mumbled. "Rotten fruits will."

He jumped into the trash heap, and searched for something to eat. The rain made the food wet and greasy, giving it a salty ting. Naruto slipped halfway on a loaf of mushy bread as the rain continued to fall harder, but got his balance back when his hands reached the edges of the dumpster, feeling the cold metal under his small fingers.

A bolt of lightning hit the sky, making him cover his ears trying to block out the terrible noise that sent birds flying into the heavens. The winds picked up and Naruto held his arms around his body, trying to keep from freezing. "So cold," he chattered. "I shouldn't have come out today." But he knew in his heart that if he wanted to remain out of everyone's sight, days like these were often the best.

He pulled out a white plastic bag from his tiny pocket and blew into it to see if it had any holes. Noticing that it was fine, he put it down into the dumpster's floor and gathered anything he could find that might be edible. "This doesn't look too bad."

Trial and error taught him that wheat often lasted longer than other foods and they only made him marginally sick after consumption. Things such as diary products and rotten meat were the things he should stay away from as flies tended to lay their maggots inside of them.

"Why do I go through this? I should just say sorry to the old man," he told himself, dropping some steak with festering larvae dripping out from the centre. "I should apologize; tell him that I do need him. He'll forgive me. Won't he?"

A year ago the boy's temper got the better of him. He told the Hokage that he was fine on his own—that he was a man who could take care of himself. The Third answered that he was only a child and that he would give him proper housing, that the boy was becoming harder to deal with, and was starting to develop an attitude that he did not like. Naruto was rude to everyone he knew; he cussed, he swore, and irritated everyone in his sight.

He pranked and schemed against the villagers, vandalizing anything he could reach. It was amusing at first, but it quickly escalated to damaging public property. That could not be tolerated; it was one thing to throw eggs at someone who was mean to him but to destroy pieces of public playgrounds was another.

"Like I care about a bunch of brats," he grumbled to himself, jumping off from the dumpster, only to slip and fall into the muddy floor. His small hands dug into the earth and he pushed himself up again. The water fell across his wet shirt, mixing with the mud clinging to it. "Grr, this was my only good shirt too."

He wiped off the dirt as best he could and put the bag over his shoulder. He looked ahead of the open alley to see if anyone would spot him. He didn't want that. If rumors got out that he was looking through trash for food, he would never live it down. "Or my classmates won't ever let me forget."

He hated them so much. The anger he felt for each and every one of them had bounds of course but more and more he wanted them dead, to disappear and never look at him again. Everyone disgusted him, from little Hinata to the loud Kiba. It didn't matter if they were nice to him, or mean to him, just the fact that they exist made him realize what he didn't have.

Parents.

Kind and loving parents.

"It's not fair," he grumbled, walking down the street and watching the rainy skies. "Shouldn't I also have parents? Why couldn't they tell me about mine?" No one would ever mention them, the parents of Uzumaki Naruto; they had no graves, no stories, no traces.

"It's like I just suddenly appeared," he told himself, looking to see if there was someone in the shady corner he passed. He let go of the breath he was holding—there wasn't anyone there. Well, anyone he could see that is.

"Let's see now." He put his hands into the bag that was quickly filling up with water and pulled out a piece of soggy bread. He turned it to see how badly infected it was. "Not bad, only one maggot."

He pulled out the long bug from inside the bread and threw it into the streets, and crushed it under his bare feet. "I'll have to find some shoes later." His cold toes fell into a small puddle, to wipe off the innards of the insect, and came back to the cold pavement. Naruto walked down the street, across a place called Ichiraku's, hoping that the chef didn't see him. "That guy's always worried about me; he should mind his own business." He didn't like nosey people, nosey people tended to tell the Third things about him, and that would lead to the old man worrying about him.

"But I guess he loves me," he sighed. That was true, the Third Hokage did like Naruto, though love might have been pushing it. "The wind better not have blown down my house."

He finally got to his destination. In the corner of an alley, he found a box. This was his home. It was made from a tough, brown material that blends in with its environment. It had pieces of wood inside of it as well to give it structure. Around the box and over it was a tarp. It kept the rain out, though if the pressure got too heavy, it wouldn't do much for support and would topple onto Naruto while he slept inside of it. "One of these days, I'll buy a big house."

Dreams were always nice.

Naruto liked to dream. When he went to sleep and closed his eyes, he could see a world of endless possibilities; in them he saw himself bigger, taller, stronger, more handsome, and clean. Especially clean. The boy always smelled bad, terrible actually. It lead to a stream of dirty Naruto jokes from his classmates, especially Ino and Sakura.

Naruto always reacted violently when they made fun of him; he recalled one day picking up his chair and violently battering Ino with it before Iruka realized what he was going to do and stop him. Ino always knew how to push it, and her friend Sakura was just as bad.

It didn't help that no one would ever stand up for him. It wasn't his fault he didn't have access to showers; he was an independent boy and would be damned if he had to get back to the Third. "Still, it would be nice to take warm baths again." Indeed it would, but the boy was resolute.

He pulled off his shirt and rung it in his arms, his skinny body feeling the faint pressure of water fall down his back; tracing on his tanned rib cage, onto his pants, and down his legs. A small puddle formed on the ground, making Naruto back away, hoping not to get any wetter. "Didn't realize there was so much water here," he mumbled. "Thought, it was only a little soaked."

Naruto fell to the ground on his hands and knees and crawled into the opening of his box. He pulled apart the entrance as he got in. once inside he snuggled onto the protective warmth of the box and closed the lid, hoping the weather wouldn't get any worse.

The box itself wasn't that large, but it was large enough that the small boy could sleep inside without having to curl his hands and feet. That wasn't saying much, considering he was the shortest person in his class at least by half a head. "Wonder what it's like to be tall," he said to his ceiling. "Bet you feel powerful."

He put his hands underneath his head and listened to the gentle taps of rain and wind. Thunder and lightning ignited the skies, but he felt relaxed for that reason alone. It blinded him to the problems of his life, that were piling up like dirt laundry. Course he wouldn't know much about clothes, considering he only had one pair.

Naruto felt a fierce gust of wind hit the side of his box and heard the tarp that covered the box gently slide. He sighed and decided to go out and see what was wrong with it. His tiny feet took him to the battering storm and he groaned seeing the spike he attached to the tarp missing. The wind must have blown it aside.

Naruto left the alley, intent on finding the missing spike. It didn't take him long to find it, since someone was holding it.

"Mom, what's that," said a voice Naruto was more than familiar with. His eyes narrowed in anger and resentment. He walked closer to the sound and saw a tall woman carrying an umbrella, but it wasn't her that made him angry. It was the boy standing beside her. "Is that a tent pike? It looks rusty."

The woman, a very matronly woman at that, wearing what looked like an apron and maternal wear, did not reply at first to her son's question. "Sasuke, hush," she said. The black haired boy stopped talking. Naruto walked up to them at that time, glancing up at the person holding his spike. "Is this yours?" she asked, holding it up to the boy, who nodded, quickly taking it out of her hand and holding it to himself possessively.

Pulling up the umbrella slightly, the woman looked down to see the boy. He wore clothes one would find in a trash bin, there were deep blue rings around both of his eyes, indicating a lack of sleep, and, even with the rain pounding down on her umbrella, she could smell the scent of death that clung to him like impaled spikes. "What's your name, dear?"

"Naruto…Uzumaki Naruto." He turned around and walked back to the alley. The woman's gaze never left him, she looked ahead of the boy, seeing what looked like a make shift tent made from a damaged tarp and box. "Is that your home?" she asked, raising her voice so he could hear her through the rain.

Naruto didn't reply—he refused to dignify that with a response. Instead, he turned around when he got to his small house and nodded, trying not to look at the face Sasuke made.

"Mom, let's go," he said, pulling on the edges of her skirt. Sasuke wasn't used to seeing people sleep in boxes; the sight of poor people disturbed him. His sheltered life didn't allow for seeing other people's misery and, being an elite from an extraordinary rich family, kept him well nurtured. Anything that clashed with his picture of a perfect world hurt him. "I don't like this."

"Wait just a moment, dear," the mother said, bending down on knee level to stare the Uchiha boy in the eyes. She saw the discomfort all this caused her son. Sasuke had a good heart, to see other people in pain must have shaken him. Especially since that person was near his own age. Mikoto gently smiled at her son. "Let me just give him something; I think he can make better use for it than us."

Sasuke nodded, holding out his hand as his mother gave him the umbrella. He watched her leave the comfort of the umbrella, into the cold rain, walking towards the boy in the box. She carried with her the bag of groceries she bought with her son. The Uchiha female hesitated when she finally got next to the crude shelter.

It wasn't like there was a doorbell she could ring, or any place she could knock. She also didn't want to touch the top of the tarp, as she could see how fragile it was. If she accidentally tore it, that would be the end of some semblance of protection the boy managed to create.

Still, it impressed her how far the boy had come at such a young age, to build a small shelter for himself. It wasn't half bad, given a few more materials it might even last the winter that was approaching. She didn't want to think how that would be on the boy, especially the long cold nights.

"Hello," she said and waited for a reply. "Can you hear me?" she asked after a minute of waiting.

Still, no one said anything. She knelt down and tapped her knuckles on the edge of the box, underneath the wet tarp. "You don't have to say anything; I just thought you should know I have left something for you."

The pale mother waited again for the boy to say something, feeling like she deserved an answer for her troubles. The matriarch sighed, and got up, running her hands down her wet hair. It was probably better, she supposed. Getting back to her umbrella was the higher priority.

The mother skipped across the many puddles, in the pouring rain, back to her son who was diligently holding the umbrella. "Thank you Sasuke-chan." Sasuke blushed at this bit of praise. "You did a wonderful job."

The two of them walked past the alley, but Mikoto looked back one last time to the broken looking shelter, and saw that the bag she placed outside the box was missing. She turned back, facing the road ahead of her and smiled.

* * *

Naruto ate his meal in silence, trying not to make too much noise as the echo inside his box made it very difficult to concentrate on his thoughts. "Grapes…sure taste good," he said. He cleaned up the clear juices on his lips and swallowed the food he was chewing. He waited a moment for his stomach to cringe in terrible pain from the sugar rush and then lay on the box floor.

His mind raced through the reasons Sasuke's mother would offer him food. "Must be pity," he said. He rolled over to face the side of the box, since there was a leak at the top, dripping water down on his face. "I should have just returned it to her."

His stomach grumbled. "Then again, maybe not," he admitted. Uzumaki Naruto took any chance he could get to receive free food. On a rare occasion he would be asked to do some terrible chore for food, like clean a few gutters, or do some stupid stunt for someone's cruel whims. In the end, the reward of a fresh apple of orange was worth it.

"Sasuke, che, teme is gonna tell everyone," he grumbled, closing his eyes when another bolt of lightning shook the earth. "I shouldn't go to school tomorrow."

But he knew he had to, tomorrow was the first chance they would have at passing the Genin exam. This was a day he couldn't just skip, not like all the other days. "Plus Iruka would probably come searching for me, and find me here - idiot always knows where I am."

Naruto's eyes darkened, for an instant rage lit his pupils, anger like fires of a thousand suns. "If he tells anyone...I am gonna hurt him."

Then he sighed. "Who am I kidding." He felt up the box to find a pillow. Grasping it, he brought it to his face. "While I am at it I might as well beat up Kiba, Ino, Sakura and pretty much everyone in the class." All of them would spread the word that Uzumaki Naruto was homeless. He clutched the pillow in his small hands, almost tearing the dirty cover, his breath hitched. "I hate this!"

He hated living in squalor, he hated living like this, hated his pride that allowed him to not accept help when he clearly needed it. "But what choice do I have? I can't go back, not after I promised I would never ask him for help." He told the Third that more than anything the old man's help only caused more problems than it solved.

The rain fell faster, and the leaks grew larger. Naruto sighed. "I'll have to fix this." Getting up from his box, Uzumaki Naruto opened the flaps and went out to fix the leak. "Guess I'll worry about Sasuke, tomorrow. Maybe I can trade him something, so he'll keep his mouth shut."

He snorted. "Fat chance."

* * *

"Dinner is ready, Sasuke," Mikoto said from the kitchen. She walked slowly to the table, wearing a fresh set of aprons, in the color of green this time. She put down the food on the large mahogany table and waited for her two sons and husband to arrive.

The first one to come was Sasuke, as expected. Mikoto walked behind the little boy and waited for him to sit down. The boy's feet didn't even hit the ground and he smiled seeing his mother. "Ribs! Thanks mom!" Ribs were Sasuke's favorite. The sweet taste, along with the large amount of rib fat seemed to please the boy. It was an expensive cut of meat that not many in Konoha could afford, but the clans had plenty of money to spare. "You're welcome, dear," she said, showing off rows of white teeth. "Wash your hands before you start."

Sasuke grumbled and did as he was told. Mikoto followed him to the sink. "I can clean my hands by myself," Sasuke protested. "Mom?"

Mikoto's kind face looked grim. "Sasuke, you remember what we saw today?" she asked. Sasuke looked uncomfortable, the memory fresh in his head, he nodded.

His mother sighed. "What do you know about Uzumaki Naruto?" she asked. "Do you know how old he is? Whether he has parents, anything important?

Sasuke shook his head, slightly miffed that his mother knew this. "I know he's an orphan and a trouble maker." The boy scowled. "He's always destroying things." He thought about anything else he knew about Naruto. "I don't think he likes me."

Mikoto suspected as much, seeing the brief flash of menace in the blond's eyes when he saw Sasuke, his whole body language told her that, if she hadn't been there, Naruto might have attacked the ebony haired toddler. "I don't think you're wrong about that, Sasuke," she admitted. "But try to see it from his point of view; you just found out something about him that I know he wants to remain a secret."

Sasuke shuffled his feet, embarrassed. "I didn't mean too!" he shouted. "It just happened, an accident, mom!" People's private lives never interested the boy; he was too busy worrying about his father's approval as well as his older brother's safety. Clan members were watching Itachi like guard dogs. That was something Sasuke concluded after seeing the watchful Uchihas tail his brother whenever he left the compound.

"So what will you do with this new found information?" asked his mother. She held the boy's hands, so small and soft. It seemed that, despite his training, the boy managed to keep the girlish qualities about him. He would grow up to be a very delicate looking boy, she suspected; similar to Itachi. No, she corrected, even more handsome than Itachi. "Will you tell others, Sasuke? Would you let them know your classmate doesn't have anywhere to go, that he lives in a box, hungry, scared, and alone."

"No!" Sasuke immediately shouted. He didn't like where his conversation was going, he wasn't going to tell anyone in the first place, and he didn't like how his mom came to the wrong conclusion about his character. How could his own mom think her son was so cruel! "I would never do that!"

Mikoto smiled, relieved at how shaken Sasuke was. She knew his character; Uchiha Sasuke had many flaws, his mercy being one of them. His father would complain that their son needed to be toughened, but Mikoto wouldn't have that. She had already lost one son to the Shinobi wars, Itachi was never the same since that day, and she wouldn't lose another, never again. "Sasuke, honey, thank you." She patted the boy on the head, making Sasuke turn away, embarrassed. "I am proud of you."

She was, she though she did a great job raising her son. The feeling only lasted until Itachi sat down beside his father for dinner, his eyes showing an unexpected level of malevolence that made everyone in the dinner table uncomfortable.

They ate their meal in silence, Sasuke trying to get them to talk, only for no one to answer him. When the last of his ribs were finished, Itachi sat up and excused himself. "I have to go to bed early; I have an important mission tomorrow." He said this without looking at anyone. He got up, still wearing his Anbu uniform. "Thank you for the meal, mother."

Mikoto accepted his thanks and prepared to clear the table, while Sasuke chased after his brother. Her husband didn't say a word. He sat up from the table, excused himself, and followed his eldest son.

"It didn't used to be this way," Mikoto said to herself, washing the dishes. "Things were so much easier, back then." Back when her friends and family were alive. Back when she wasn't afraid to speak her mind, without having to worry about the repercussions it might have on her husband.

Back to the days when they were all kids, playing Ninja. When Clan politics did not dictate every aspect o their lives, and when the most difficult part of their life was the Chunin exam. "Back then, we were happy."

Outside, the thunderstorm got worse.

* * *

"What happened to you?" Shikamaru asked the friendly neighborhood blond. Naruto sat on his desk, his hair wet, his shirt wet, and his pants filthier than usual. "Didn't know mud baths were so popular, thought only those rich folks could afford it." Naruto scowled, deciding not to reply to that. "Listen, you should probably get cleaned up before Ino gets here; she'll have a lot to say about this, and I don't want to see you tear her a new one."

Naruto shrugged. "Let her bitch all she wants, I ain't got time to clean myself, and you know it." He really didn't, whatever time he had before class started he had to use to do some extra mental exercises to go over formulas for the written portion of the test, which would be the first part. "I'll get cleaned up later."

"Suit yourself," Shikamaru said. He walked back to his part of the classroom, taking his seat beside his fat best friend. "Lay off Ino, Naruto, for once I have to agree with her if she says you stink."

Naruto gave the boy the finger.

A few minutes later class came into session. Iruka handed out the tests to everyone, including a very irate Ino, who had a bruise on her left cheek. "Naruto hit me," she mumbled when Iruka asked her how she got that, resulting in Naruto standing outside in the hallway for half an hour, while the class wrote their test.

When he came in he only had half an hour to finish it, but he managed to, if barely guessing on the remaining few questions. He was glad the test was multiple choice, allowing for lots of extra time to narrow down the answers.

"Should have picked a on the last question," he grumbled, walking out of the hall to stand behind Sakura, who told the class how difficult the last question was, but she nailed it. "Wish I sat beside her," he mumbled under his breath. He saw Kiba nod when he said this, giving Naruto the distinct idea that he and the Inuzuka were on the same page on this one. "Guh, I feel even dumber for saying that now." He really didn't want to sink down to Kiba's level.

Naruto at least prided himself on being smarter than the dog boy, which wasn't saying a lot considering the kid used to lick himself in his early years in the academy, and was the only one Ino made more fun of than Naruto himself. "Next, Naruto, show your Taijutsu katas!" Iruka called out. He waited for the boy to stand in front of Suzume sensei, who sat near the girls in the class.

The girls watched as the boys went through their Kata, most of them cheering for Sasuke, as his form was the most flawless. When he went toe to toe with Iruka, he showed his potential and Iruka was impressed, if the sweat beading from his forehead was an indication.

"Alright, Naruto, you ready?" he asked.

"Depends," Naruto admitted, "How good of a teacher are ya? Didn't learn much from yer classes, sensei."

"That's not fair, Naruto-kun," Suzume sighed, seeing the tick mark on Iruka's forehead, the boy was testing his limits. "Iruka-sensei is doing the best he can." Her nose crumpled. "What's that smell?"

"Me." He showed the two what he learned. "That's not a lot Naruto, how disappointing," Iruka said. He wrote down another x on the boy's paper.

"Blame the teacher, sensei." Naruto shrugged.

"There is nothing wrong with the way I teach," Iruka defended.

"I still don't know how to make a clone."

"That's your fault! Now walk back to the end of the line."

Ino tried to trip him when he got too close. Naruto gave her a nice boot on her ankles when he saw her feet stick out to make him fall. "Ouch! Why you-" She would have done more had Naruto's glare not made her back away.

Uzumaki Naruto could get very violent; she had seen firsthand what he did to Kiba when the dog boy tried to pull a prank on the blond. For a boy who liked to terrorize other people, he sure did not agree to his own medicine.

Eventually the class was dismissed. No one passed the exam, but that was hardly a surprise. Some people could do the ninja techniques, while failing the written portion. Some would do well in the written but fail the practical. Naruto failed both, but he didn't seem to care.

"Wasn't going to pass today, anyway," he admitted.

Up ahead he saw Sasuke, walking to his brother. "I need to talk to him." He followed the two brothers, from a distance. "Gotta make sure he doesn't squeal on me."

"Hold it," said a voice from behind Naruto. "Don't you know tailing people can get you killed in a Ninja village?"

Naruto didn't even turn around to reply. "Screw you lady, I know my rights."

Instantly the boy felt a slap to the back of the head. He clutched the spot where it hurt and turned to face the person who did that. He was awarded by the sight of a tall woman with a black ponytail. She wore a sundress and held two bags of groceries on each of her hands. Her eyes were dark brown, along with her hair, which was so dark it was almost black.

She looked anything but amused by the boy's reply. "What did you just say to _me_?"

Naruto wanted to repeat what he said earlier, but decided against it. It wouldn't do to get into a fight with a random woman in the street, he needed to get to Sasuke before him and his brother entered the compounds. "I said it was none of your business who I follow lady, now would you leave me alone? I got shit to do." He made to follow his adversary, when he felt a hand grab the back of dirty collar. He yelped and tried to fight it off.

The hand picked Naruto off the ground. It turned Naruto around in midair and let him hang there, facing the wielder of the hand, whose eyes burned into his own. "Young man, can you tell me why saying that to a lady would make her angry?" she asked, each word sounding like scraps of nails. She had her teeth bared, and veins popping. "Do you think there was a better way for you to talk to your elders?"

Naruto growled, "Let go of me!" He flayed his arms in the air, hoping that would make the lady drop him, but the woman was a lot stronger than she looked. She held him there, hanging from his collar. People were walking past the two, whispering to themselves and some even laughed at the boy. "Drop me, ya old hag!"

The woman did just that, making the boy hit the floor with a fierce impact. Naruto got up and wiped himself off, glaring at the tall woman. "What's your problem?" he asked. "I didn't do anything to you!"

The woman did not relent, her eyes narrowed. "You did do something to me, young man," she stepped up over his small form. Naruto backed away, suddenly realize how small he was in comparison. "You told me to screw off." She took another step and hovered over him menacingly. "No one talks to me that way, especially not some uncouth child who can't give a decent answer to someone who is trying to help him."

Naruto had a response to that, but didn't say anything when the lady's eyes narrowed further. "Choose your words carefully."

Naruto closed his mouth.

"That's better." She picked up her groceries, and handed one to Naruto. "Carry one of these for me, young man." She shoved the heaviest bag of groceries to the boy's hand and walked off. Naruto didn't follow at first, but figured that he had nothing to lose. The lady might even give him a fruit or two for his trouble.

They walked in silence for a few minutes until the tall woman decided to speak. "Your name is Uzumaki Naruto, isn't it?"

Naruto nodded. That was common knowledge. Despite how much the villagers hated him, they all seemed to know who he was. They might not always know where he lived, or what he did, and how old he was, but they always knew his name.

The woman didn't say anything after that, but looked thoughtful. "Do you know my son, Shikamaru?" she asked. "He should be in your year."

Naruto thought about it. This answer would have to be carefully worded because there were a legion of parents who did not want their child associating with him on a principle that he couldn't figure out. He observed the mother carefully and now saw the resemblance between the two. They seemed to have similar hair and eye color. Only the woman had slightly paler skin; that was natural for any parent, he guessed.

More importantly, she wasn't frowning, or acting cold. She just looked curious, and slightly irritated. "Yes," he admitted, "I have ran into him here and there."

She nodded. "How is he doing in class?" she asked. "Working hard?"

Naruto snorted. "You could say that."

The mother didn't like that answer. "What do you mean by that," she asked coldly.

Naruto didn't mean to offend her; he forgot how sensitive parents could be when an insult was directed to their children. He decided to reword the next reply carefully. Naruto was also sure that Shikamaru would not appreciate the blond ratting him to a parent, no one would ever accuse Naruto for being a snitch, not him.

"I mean he's doing great at school," he said, "He can pass a test with his eyes closed."

Oddly enough that fact was true. Naruto just realized how strange that was. Maybe he didn't know his classmate as well as he thought? For a person to get better marks than Kiba on a test, while being unconscious, that was plain odd. He would have to ask more questions the next time he saw the kid.

"Good," the mother said. Her features softened. "I was worried that he would slack off. " Naruto didn't say anything to that. "He has this tendency to sleep at the worst times you see. Perhaps you have seen it, or perhaps you have not, but Shikamaru has a few problems that—well, I would prefer not to mention them."

"Not my business anyway." Naruto shrugged. "I got enough to deal with as it is." Naruto just thought of something. "If you're Shikamaru's mom, does that make you Mrs. Nara?"

The Nara smiled. "It does." She slowed down to let the boy walk beside her. "I prefer to be called my last name, Yoshino. There are many Naras in this village and I would prefer not to be confused with them."

Naruto put that name into his memory. "Yo-sh-ino." He thought he had a good grasp of the name. It sounded like a pretty name. Taking a closer look at the lady's face he realized that she was a pretty woman indeed. Her demeanor was strong, making it hard to notice it the first time. He was too busy focusing on her bad parts to realize just how man good parts she had.

A lot.

She didn't have that pale beauty Sasuke's mother had, but she had something made of stronger stuff. "Not to be rude, or anything, Yoshino-san, but why are you making me do this?"

Yoshino turned to the small boy, who looked at her quizzically with those large sapphire eyes. "I didn't want to carry both of the bags, and you looked like you had time to kill, boy." She sped up, making the boy walk faster. "Normally I would bring my son, but he was busy."

"Huh? I just saw him in the park," Naruto said. "Didn't look too busy."

Yoshino stopped. Slowly she turned to face the blonde. Naruto could feel anger build in her movements as she slowly became more agitated. She clenched her fist and almost snarled. "That liar!"

"Crap," Naruto mumbled. "I'm a snitch."

The woman grumbled the rest of the way out of the town square. Naruto didn't know what went through her mind to make her so angry. Children always lied to their parents, what was the big deal? It seemed like the natural thing to do. It was either that or do the chores the parents would want them to do.

Naruto walked beside the mother, he didn't want to be left behind, now that the crowds were becoming larger. Yoshino-san stopped in a few different stalls and Naruto carried a few more bags for her. Pretty soon the boy realized that he was holding almost everything, while the woman carried the single bag of bread she had in the first place.

The blond thought about just dropping everything and walking away, he was sure that Sasuke and Itachi were already inside their homes, so the day was a bust, but spending the rest of the day with Shikamaru's mom was probably not a great option either.

The last stop was a clothing store. Yoshino walked into the store, holding the door for Naruto, who nodded to her. He would have said thanks, but he didn't feel thankful at the moment, not when his hands were so numb.

Naruto sat down on a chair to get his energy back, it didn't take long but he would need a good solid minute to relax and let his tension leave him. "Don't sit around, boy," Yoshino grumbled. "Get into the dressing room."

Naruto protested, but was shoved violently into the room. Turning around, he was pelted by a black shirt and black shorts. "Put those one," the woman said.

Uzumaki Naruto did just that, hesitantly of course. He looked at his reflection on the mirror. It seemed to work on him. The high collared black shirt gave him a look of a Jounin with his vest off, although Naruto was sure the black shorts looked ridiculous, they were too long and made him look even shorter than he already felt.

He walked out wearing that dress. "Not bad," the mother muttered to herself. She turned to the cashier. "Put that on my tab."

"Huh?"

Naruto didn't know what to say. Why exactly was she doing this, and why buy him a pair of clothing? "I don't get it, what gives?" he asked. "I didn't ask for this you know." Naruto didn't like receiving gifts; they were often followed by a catch.

The only person who ever gave him anything was the Third, and the old man always wanted something from him in return. Whether it was staying at the orphanage surrounded by people who hated him, or living in an apartment where he felt like he was always being watched by everyone, from the landlord to his neighbors.

Gifts always came with the cost of his freedom. Naruto took off the shirt and dropped the pants, letting it fall to floor. Yoshino scowled seeing the boy in his small dirty boxers. "Young man, put those back on."

Naruto didn't do that, instead he walked back to the dressing room and put on his original clothes. The filthy ones. "No can do, lady." He headed out the door, to be stopped frozen." What the hell!"

He tried to turn around but found his body wouldn't move. He heard foot steps came up behind him, and felt the woman's breath touch the back of his neck. "You aren't going anywhere until you let me thank you." She let go of the jutsu that held him, causing Naruto to fall to the ground.

He felt a small pain on his knee, but ignored it. The boy got up and glared at the woman behind him, who looked slightly apologetic. "Are you hurt?" she asked. "My apologies, but you left me with little option."

"There were a lot of options, lady-Yoshino-san, you just took the worst one," he rubbed his knees. They bled a little, but slowly healed. "Could have just said stop, ya know?"

"Would you have stopped?" she asked.

"No."

Yoshino walked to the dressing room and carried back the black clothing. She handed it to him. "These belong to you," she said. "Your current clothes are falling apart." She didn't say anything for a moment; she didn't look like she wanted to admit the final part. "Shikamaru told me he had a friend who looked like he dug clothes out a gutter." She frowned. "I didn't know how apt he was in that particular description."

"Yeah, well…" He tried to think of something mean to say to that response, but was touched that a classmate actually cared enough to tell his parents about his situation. He didn't say anything for a second, too stunned, yet words came out almost from his subconscious. "Thank you, I appreciate this." He decided to add a bit more. "Please let Shikamaru know that."

She smiled, genuinely this time. Her full lips widened cheerfully, causing a pair of pink dimples to form in her cheeks. Once again he was amazed that he missed how handsome she was. "You are welcome, Naruto-san."

Naruto carried the lady's groceries back to her home. She talked to him about her children, how they were growing up so fast. She told him lying was wrong and that she was going to punish the boy when he got home, and talked about her daily life, cooking and cleaning

The boy listened to all this with rapt attention. It wasn't often that someone talked to him, and when they did it wasn't a compliment either. He liked Yoshino, she was a bit rough around the edges, but she seemed genuine.

He followed her as far as the edge of her compound, a large traditional Japanese temple, and dropped off her things in the gate, where a few children walked up and took it back to the house. Naruto saw a few deer in the background, running in the fields. When he asked her about that, she said to not ask too many questions, not that she would appreciate it if he didn't mention seeing them.

Naruto promised he wouldn't tell anyone what he saw, and left. He carried with him a bag of food, and another bag with clothes. "Huh, life isn't so bad." He would think these thoughts until another thunderstorm struck the sky again.

Louder than the previous night.

* * *

There were people outside of his box. "Should we set it on fire?" said a bleary voice. "No one will know."

"Don't be an idiot, there is always someone watching the kid," another answered. "Still, we can do things if we don't push it." Some of the voices laughed. "Let's shake up this box."

Naruto tumbled helplessly as the box was turned over and he fell over. The men outside rolled his box a second time, and Naruto felt kicks on the side of the box, not strong enough to tear it, but strong to make loud noises. "You like that, brat?" said another voice. "There's more where that came from."

The drunken laughter of these men echoed through the walls, while Naruto tumbled and cried for them to stop. They weren't physically hurting him, emotionally was another matter. It was random occurrences like these that made Naruto wonder why he wanted to be a Ninja.

To be acknowledged by people like these? It didn't make any sense. Why fight for people who hate you? Why protect those who want you dead?

Naruto was certainly not going to put his life on the line for those who would dance on his grave. The kicking became louder and the tumbles faster, he grabbed onto his pillow and held on. He was only eight; a child shouldn't have to go through this.

But he did.

And he would do it again, and as long as it took until he was old enough to defend himself. The sheer helplessness of the boy was pure tragedy. "Please stop," he begged. Despite his angry demeanor Naruto was actually very shy around angry groups of adults, especially strangers.

It's hard to deal with new people, new variables that one is not used to encountering. The boy didn't know what these people might do if provoked, and for all he knew these people could be Ninja. He waited for the men to stop their fun, hoping it would end soon.

He just wanted to sleep, was that too much to ask? If reincarnation existed; what had he done in the past life to be reborn in such a pathetic state? "Stop it!" he shouted, hearing their insults grow faster, with more swears and curses about his character, along with how his mother must have been a whore.

His eyes flashed angrily at this, he burst a hole through the box and tackled his attacker. "Don't say that!" he shoved the man to the ground, straddling his chest. "Take that back! You don't even know my mother!"

No one seemed to know his mother, and word of his father was taboo.

The man grinned, his green teeth showing. "I know your mother, boy." The man didn't bother to push the blond off of him. Around him his men gathered making no move to attack. They knew he was watching. They even stared at the spot they were sure the Anbu kept guard.

Thunder rumbled in the distance and a lightning bolt illuminated the figure standing on the roof, watching, wearing the mask of a weasel, always gazing, yet never moving.

They circled the boy, saying hurtful words to stab at his soul. "The question is, do you know who she is?" the man on the ground laughed, knowing full well the boy had no idea. The Third would have it no other way. How cruel their great leader was with his kindness, how the same rules he made to protect the boy only caused more hatred as it built up in collective conscious of their society.

"Do you know if she abandoned you?" one of them asked. It occurred to Naruto that the men were too ugly to be real. They were absolutely revolting, looked too demonic to be natural.

"Henge," Naruto growled. "Why are you using a disguise?"

"Oi, he's a smart one," one of them said, a bald man with a crooked nose. "Gonna be a smart Ninja will ya?" The green tooth laughed at this joke. "We're hiding our identities, genius."

The three laughed, as the man pushed Naruto off his chest, making the boy fall to the ground onto the wet puddle. Splashes of water hit the side of his box as he impacted. Feeling paranoid, Naruto quickly got up, ready for them to attack, but they did not.

Instead, they continued to circle him. Moving faster, making Naruto dizzy. "Your dad was a piece of work, though," one of them admitted. "A shame you won't ever know who he is."

A bark of laughter met this reply by the green teethed goon. He stood up straight, looking down the blond who backed away into the alley. He was up against the wall as they closed in. "Wouldn't you like to know who they are?" They were drunk, severely so. Naruto was sure they didn't know who his parents were, all information on them had been erased a long time ago, and there must have been a good reason for it.

At least he hoped.

"You don't know what yer talking about!" Naruto shouted. He breathed in another stream of air. "You bastards lie!" They can't be telling the truth Naruto told himself, they just couldn't. "You don't know nothin'!"

"Hoo hoo!" the bald man said, hitting the green teethed man in the ribs. "He thinks we are kidding." He put his fist up to the boy, whom didn't look afraid. "Listen brat, your bitch of a mother had red hair, like the blood oozing off carcass." The man licked his lips. "I could still taste her."

Naruto snarled at this and punched the man in the face, only for him to back away. "Nice," the man said, he didn't look unhappy at this reaction. "Yer a fighter, good one, ya little bastard." He continued to laugh. "Your whore of a momma would be so proud, she could hit hard too"

Naruto growled, letting out a guttural shout, and speared the man's feet. The two fell to the ground, but the man continued to laugh. His friends did the same; they weren't going to attack him. If they did the Anbu would have authorization to attack and they didn't want that.

It was no secret that Weasel followed strict protocol and he wouldn't move. The three of them could handle one orphan, even if the boy hit them, he wouldn't do much if any damage. "What a pussy punch," green said. "You hit like her, you little cunt," he laughed, "though I wouldn't mind her pounding me, if you know what I mean."

Naruto's anger boiled up to the surface. Through the pouring rain he shouted for them stop saying those hurtful words. He turned to face the Anbu standing in the rain, waiting, watching everything, as the rain poured down his mask. "What are you waiting for!" Naruto shouted, "Get rid of them!"

The Anbu didn't budge. The wind blew around the weasel-masked man, heavy droplets pelting him, not reacting to any of it. He was like a statue affected by noting, standing still in the maelstrom of emotions and water. "Your job is to protect people, ain't it!" Naruto continued.

Still, no answer from the Anbu.

"He won't lift a finger to help, baka," the drunken bald man said. "Word's out that the Third alleviated some of your protection." The man snorted. "Seems like the local demon wanted to be alone."The man spat on the floor, next to the boy. "How does independence taste?"

Naruto turned his head away. "I don't need him." Gathering his courage he faced the three, then back at the Anbu. "And I don't need you!"

The Anbu didn't look like he heard, even when the rain calmed down long enough for those sounds to reach his ears.

"Ha, you do need him, brat, you need every Ninja in the forces to keep this village from eating you alive," the man's left eyes twitched violently. "If we were allowed to hurt you, oh you better believe something real nice would happen to you." He made a choking gesture with both his hands, smiling at the blond with grimy teeth. "I would take my time, you better believe that, gaki."

_Believe it. _Naruto didn't like that phrase. People used that phrase at the end of every death threat he had ever heard. "I am not afraid of you!" Naruto shouted, as a bolt of lightning shot across the sky. A storm of crows decided to fly across Konoha at that time. "None of you scare me, nothing scares me." The boy's eyes narrowed, his fanged teeth were bared. "Get out of here, or else."

The three of them went silent.

Then the baldy stepped up. "You aren't afraid of us, boy?" he asked softly. Naruto didn't make a reply. The man smiled. "You should be, because we are afraid of you."

A bolt so large it shook the Earth struck the box Naruto lived it, setting the brown box on fire, while exploding anything inside of it. Naruto was flung out of the alley by the sheer impact. It literally left a hole in the ground, one so large the ground around the bolt caved in.

The three men disappeared at the sound of the bolt and Naruto wondered if the stray lightning hit any of them. He got off the ground, his body feeling so wet he was sure he must have looked like a drowned puppy. He took a step and slipped to the floor, but stopped himself from completely falling by putting his hands out in front of him, as if he were doing pushups.

He managed to get himself up right and walked to the corner of the alley. There he found the container of clothes Yoshino-san bought him. Beneath those clothes was an extra sheet. Naruto pulled out the sheet and wrapped it around himself.

Unlike the tarp, it wasn't waterproof and he knew it would be a matter of time before he would be soaked through the bone. He shivered. His eyes went up to the Anbu who continued to look at him. Winds howling the distance, like the roar of a wolf. "This is your fault!" Naruto yelled. "You should've been doin' yer job!"

The Anbu tilted his head, as if to question if the boy was serious. "I know what I said! I don't need you or the Third, but I damn well could have used it."His blue eyes became bloodshot. "Look what they did to my home." He pointed to the rubble. "You think that was some normal lightning!"

Naruto was no one's fool. For the bolt to hit like that was beyond anything Nature could pull off. Not to mention the sheer accuracy it hit his _box._

The boy held back tears that threatened to burst from his eyes. This was his home; he built it with his own two hands. The parts he needed to make this place took him weeks to assemble and he wasn't sure if he would ever feel safe in this location.

He hated it when he had to change locations. Why did they destroy his comfort zone? A place where he could hide from the world. Why do that to him when he meant no harm? He played the occasional prank, but that was only against people who wronged him.

It was rare that he found a Ninja who openly confronted him, but those times Naruto was sure he barely escaped with his life. The orphan was surrounded by animosity from all sides, and he was being backed into a corner. He wasn't sure how much more he could take before he finally snapped.

On his own these past year, Naruto realized that the Third was hiding more from him that he was lead to believe.

He would hear whispers of demons, and that demon was him, Uzumaki Naruto. The prankster first suspected it was a name created from his pranks, but soon found that it wasn't the case. Even when he stopped his jokes for long period of time, they would still refer to him as the beast.

All the names had a focal point. They would be centered on the idea that he wasn't human; that he was something evil; a creature that was a danger to them, and a menace to their children; a beast.

When Naruto asked the Third about this, the old man tried to change the conversation.

The two of them hadn't met for a long time, and Naruto wasn't about to go back and see him. The boy didn't trust the old man. Children are sensitive, and they have intuition as well. Naruto had to learn to use his instincts from an early age and they were telling him that the Sandaime was lying to him.

Naruto's first suspicion started when he was younger. He asked the old man if he could go outside of the village, explore it on his own. The Third smiled and told him that he didn't need to, that the outside world was a boring place.

At the time Naruto believed him.

Months later Naruto heard of a travelling circus in a neighboring town, and asked the old man if he could go to that. The Third told him that he needn't bother, such tricks could be done by any Ninja, and that Naruto should be focusing on learning to read. This continued for a year, until Naruto decided to climb the walls of the village and leave, just for a little while.

Two second after making it past the walls of the village, he was captured by the Anbu and brought back to an extremely angry Hokage.

The man was furious that Naruto tried to leave without his permission. He banned Naruto from going out of the orphanage unless he had someone to watch him at all times. Naruto's watcher was a grouchy old lady who despised the blond and said anything she could to make the boy miserable

Naruto complained to the Third about his new caretaker and the boy found himself with a new one, this caretaker just as bad as his previous one. This continued for another year, until Naruto became fed up with the idea of someone taking care of him and tried to live on his own.

The Third offered him an apartment, and for a time Naruto was happy. That was until he realized that every night someone was watching him, while he slept. The man had bear mask and occasionally Naruto could see long tree branches twist onto the side of his window.

It terrified the boy to know that someone looked at his sleeping form. When he told the Third this new problem, the old man smiled and told Naruto not to worry about the men, or women who stared at him from hidden places.

Like most lonely people, Naruto took up a hobby of writing a journal; it contained all his emotions and feelings. It helped when he realized that not many liked him. He wasn't popular in his classroom and he certainly couldn't make friends with people who avoided him.

Many times he wrote about how much he hated the children in his age groups and occasionally wrote down the names of people he wanted dead. Grocers, clothes makers, carpenters, anyone that Naruto met tended to rip him off and take his money. Naruto wasn't stupid; the people of the village were trying to make him miserable, and they were doing this as a group.

He told the Hokage his problem, and the man just chuckled and told Naruto that he was just imagining things. This lead to their first fight, and Naruto didn't talk to the man for a month. He was so angry that the Third did not believe him. Or even scarier, perhaps the Third knew.

The thought made Naruto terrified.

One day the Third summoned Naruto to his office, in the middle of lunch. When Naruto arrived, he was greeted by a very serious expression on the man's face. The Third asked Naruto if he had ever considered wanting someone dead.

Naruto replied that he didn't, which was a lie—he wanted many people dead. The Third asked Naruto if he was telling the truth, and Naruto told him he was. The old man pulled out a journal and showed the names of people Naruto put on his death list.

The Uzumaki at the time was too shocked to see the sad expression on the old man's face. He missed the guilty look the old man had, and instead of casually asking for the journal back, Naruto exploded his emotions like a whirlwind of rage. He told the Hokage that he had no right to look through his things, told him that he didn't need people watching him and that he was better off before all of these restrictions.

He told the Hokage that he was going to leave the village, whether the Third liked it or not.

Naruto had never been so afraid of someone in his life as he was that day. The anger coming off the old man felt like the the rays of a blazing sun ready to erupt into a supernova, burning everyone in sight. Naruto shivered just seeing the fire in the man's eyes when he commanded that Naruto to get rid of that thought form his mind, that he wasn't ready to scale these walls.

Naruto didn't know how he found the bravery to talk back to the old man, but he did. His anger made him say things to the old man that he knew weren't true; how he would have been fine living on his own; how he could take care of himself; how he was a man.

How foolish that was.

The Third had chuckled darkly and told Naruto that he would let the boy live on his own, without his help, and warned the boy that he would come crawling back. He told Naruto that he would come back begging for a home, but Naruto glared at the man at the time and told him simply.

"No, I won't."

He never went back.

Currently, Naruto's eyes glimpsed the pieces of brown carton, soaking in the rain. The orphan picked a few burnt pieces and crumbled them in his hands.

"Now where am I going to live?" Naruto moaned in anguish. "I worked hard finding that tarp. Tarps aren't easy to find, especially when they are waterproof, and spikes are even harder." The boy clutched the blanket wrapped around him; the rain fell down his hair and into his eyes, mixing with the freshly shed tears.

He looked up at the Anbu who stood on the rooftops, watching, waiting, yet never saying anything. Naruto chuckled. "You think this is funny, don't you?" Naruto stood up, the blanket still wrapped about his shoulders, eyes still on the boy with the weasel mask. "Poor Naruto, thought he could live on his own, and now stands in the rain like, wet and dirty, like some gutter trash." The last part came out almost as a growl, his eyes turning red, but only for an instant.

"I want out of here!" Naruto shouted. "I want to leave this place and never come back!" The boy's voice became louder with each word. "Tell that to Ji-ji! Tell him I want to leave! I am not a prisoner!" He said the final words to himself, only for him to hear. "Someday, I'll find my way out of here, into the outside world, into freedom."

Freedom, that which all humans strive for to escape from the chains that bind them.

Naruto picked up anything he could salvage and put them into his blanket; he wrapped the blanket around the items and picked up the bundle. He wasn't sure where he was going to go now, but understood that this location wasn't secure.

Uzumaki heard footsteps behind him. The orphan turned his wet head, in the heavy rain, only to see the same Anbu. The tall teenager carried an old fashioned umbrella and held it out so that it would protect Naruto as well. The boy didn't want to accept the Anbu's help, but he was cold.

He walked into the shade of the umbrella and glared at the ground. "Thanks, I guess." The Anbu knelt to the boy's level. He looked at the soaking child's face and tilted his head to observe him, study all of his angles.

"I have a friend," he said, in a voice that sounded heavily modified. "I mean to say that I am familiar with someone who may know of a location, where a certain orphan can rest without worries, and without anyone watching him." The Anbu paused. "However, the orphan may have to keep this a very dire secret, for if my friend were to be discovered that he is harboring a little boy, instead of sending the child to an orphanage, he would be in great trouble." The weasel mask tilted to the side, like a bird observing. "Do you understand, Naruto?"

Naruto nodded, eagerly. His heart raced this kind gesture; his wet eyes shed more tears, mixing with the heavy rain. He hiccupped, feeling such warmth for this man. This teenager barely older than himself was willing to aid him, going against the wishes of the Hokage. Naruto bowed slightly to the teen and whispered his thanks.

The teenage Anbu didn't say anything; he simply gave a quick nod, turning away from the boy.

The two walked out of the alley and into the storm.

* * *

Naruto found himself in an attic. He looked around, only to see masses of scrolls, placed in neat piles. Dust covered each of them, and Naruto could smell the scent of decay in the wood that he stepped on. Looking up, spider webs, with large arachnids crawling on them, covered the ceiling. The Uzumaki turned to face the Anbu who brought him here. "Where are we?"

Before the teen could answer, the sounds of footsteps came from the floor below. It was a warning that someone was inside the house. The Anbu, still keeping his mask on his face turned away from the Uzumaki and took a few steps to the staircase that led out of the attic.

He looked back at the blond a final time before he left. "Don't make a sound, please. You may stay here for the time being until I make arrangements for a safer location."

Naruto watched as the attic was closed when the Anbu was at the end of the staircase. The gates of this room closed shut, leaving Naruto in near complete darkness. The only spot of light in this room was one coming from a hole in the floor, and it was not a big hole either. It was about the size of an eyeball.

The hole was located near the edge of the room, where most of the dust lay. Naruto walked towards the hole, simply because complete darkness always gave him the shivers. Back in the alley, the soothing light from the night time lanterns always allowed for a semi dark environment, but he had never slept in complete blackness before.

The attic floor made small creaks as his small toes touched the floor, leaving trails of dust prints. He couldn't see them of course, but he knew they were there, since all the dust simply collected on the bottom of his feet. He almost slipped a few times because of the dust bunnies and vowed to be more careful, lest he gave away that he was hiding in the attic from the outside world.

Naruto waited for the Anbu to come back in the small space that was illuminated by the beam. The Uzumaki didn't look anywhere but at the hole that the light came from, hoping that his fears of the dark didn't come back.

An hour went by without the Anbu returning and Naruto found his eyes closing. He slowly fell asleep, sitting on the floor, his back resting on the dusty wall. He would have fell asleep at that moment had he not heard the spraying of water coming from the hole in the floor.

His eyes widened as he heard a voice humming a song in a familiar tone. Whoever was singing was distinctly female. Naruto's heart pounded in his chest, with fear of being discovered. He held his breath hoping not to give away his location to this new person.

After a moment he realized how foolish that was since the voice started to outright sing, "_I am walking on sunshine,_" in an almost carefree voice, while splashing water here and there. Naruto found himself drawn to the cheery song and looked into the hole to see what exactly was going on.

He saw Sasuke's mother from the previous night. Only it was hard to tell it was Sasuke's mom because half her hair was covered in water, letting it cling to her head, and the other half of her body was drenched in bubbly white foam.

The woman continued to be oblivious that she was being watched, her voice rose a few octaves trying to get the chorus right and she swung her hips when she reached the climax of her song. The Uzumaki's eyes weren't drawn to the sway of her hips, but instead to her cheery face, that had its eyes closed.

It looked absurdly happy, as if this person had everything she had ever wanted. Naruto continued to watch the woman, whose large pale melons bounced from side to side as she danced to her own song, the shower waters running down her body, cleaning up the foam to reveal large pink nipples on the enormous set of breasts.

At some point during his peeking, he realized something. "Holy shit, I am in Sasuke's house!" Which would mean that the teen who brought him here was Uchiha Itachi.

His contemplation was set aside for the moment since a very wet and naked Mikoto lathered her hair with pink shampoo while singing another song that Naruto wasn't familiar with. What interested Naruto about this was how her arms massaged the back of her head, revealing the light amount of hair on her armpits. He wasn't aware that women even had hair in that spot; it was so small that one could hardly notice, but it was there.

This also allowed for a better view of her plumb breasts, which jiggled as she cleaned her scalp. Mikoto's nipples softened in the warm water, and the steam rising from the water hitting her skin gave her a pinkish flush over her pale skin. Over all the sight had Naruto turning redder than a tomato.

After listening to her sing _"Never gonna give you up_," the Uzumaki concluded the woman was a hopeless romantic. It was hilarious when she acted out the song with so much passion, singing into a bar of soap before lathering it on her bouncy breasts.

"Mom, are you done yet?" said a voice outside of the bathroom.

"Just a minute, Sasuke, I'll be out soon," she replied, opening the curtains and yelling at the door. "Just let me dry off." A light bulb went off in her head. "Sasuke do you want to join me instead?" she asked hopefully.

"Eh? No way!" Sasuke replied. "I am too old for that!"

Mikoto scowled. How could he be too old? He was only eight. "Fine," she pouted.

The woman washed off whatever suds wrapped her body, quickly running her long fingers through her thick black hair. She walked up to the sink and wrapped a towel around her long locks of ebony hair and put on a white set of robes.

She opened the door of the washroom, letting in an embarrassed looking Sasuke. "I have to potty," he admitted. "Can you please go!"

Mikoto sighed, then rolled her eyes. "Yes, Sasuke-chan."

Naruto was more than a bit disappointed to see her go. His eyes followed her as she left the room, her hips gently swaying, while her robes clung to her like a second skin.

"Finally!" Sasuke sighed.

The Uchiha took his time in the toilet. Naruto didn't bother to watch this, since the stink was rising to the ceiling and through the hole. "Urghh, doubt Sakura would be believe me if I told her the teme's shit doesn't smell like flowers."

Eventually the sound of spraying water hit Naruto's ears. An idea popped into his mind, a gruesome, sinister thought. If he did this it would be one of the best pranks in history, though he probably couldn't tell anyone about this. He would have to keep this secret, all the way to his grave.

But if he pulled it off, this one prank might be all he would need to keep away thoughts of jealousy he felt for the Uchiha.

But did Naruto have the guts to go through with this? Was he so heartless?

The answer is _Yes._

Uzumaki Naruto pulled down his pants, and found the tool he was looking for. The shower in the Uchiha washroom was running, so Naruto was sure Sasuke wouldn't notice any difference, if the boy looked up all he would see was a leaking ceiling, he might think some pipe was broken.

There would be no way for the Uchiha to know that Naruto was taking a piss through the hole. "It's Itachi's fault that there isn't a washroom here," Naruto concluded. "I'll just say that I needed to go really bad, and didn't know there was someone below."

Naruto wasn't sure if Itachi would buy it, but it was better than nothing.

He waited for the right moment. The Uzumaki was all for it; the little black haired boy had no idea what he was in for, and the fact that he focused all of his attention on a rubber ducky was even better.

"Here goes." Naruto chuckled darkly.

Uzumaki Naruto was a product of his environment. Years of loneliness, neglect, and envy made him into what he is today. It isn't right to judge his actions when one has not realized all that he has been through. He was a violent prankster, a failure as a student, and an all round anti social individual when it came to meeting new people.

That wasn't his fault, of course. The villagers had made him into what he is today, and they would continue to mold him for years to come.

Naruto was about let loose a golden shower to the precious Uchiha Sasuke-teme, when he noticed something.

The Uzumaki's eyes widened at this discovery. He backed away out from the hole of light and rubbed his eye. He shook his head a few times to clear his thoughts, and then looked again. It seemed that he wasn't seeing things.

He took a closer look at the thin, pale boy, really seeing him.

"Impossible," Naruto whispered. "I can't be seeing this, but it would explain so much, and his looks. The way he acts, all this time. Arggh, my head hurts." He clutched his skull trying to sort out his thoughts. He pulled his pants back up and zipped it quickly.

After another moment of contemplation, and hearing Sasuke sing, Naruto sighed.

He looked at Sasuke one last time. The boy frowned at the picture below him. "No, this can't be right." Naruto shook his head.

"Uchiha Sasuke…" Naruto said in careful consideration, "is a _she_?"

"_I am walking on sunshine, oh oh ohh." _

Probably, Naruto concluded. He curled up in the corner, ignoring the rising blush that filled his face.

* * *

**End**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

A Rhapsody of Amaterasu

* * *

Living in the attic of the Uchiha compound wasn't easy. At night, the hardwood floors would be freezing cold, and during the day the closed space would be even worse. Sun rays would become concentrated through the glass windows in the roof and hit the spots where Naruto wanted to sleep. 'Every time I try and take a nap a blasted laser beam hits my eye.' Overall he couldn't get much sleep during the night and even less during the day. It still beat living in a box but it wasn't such a vast improvement. "At least the box had the luxury of mobility; I could always move the box."

Itachi came in once every few weeks to drop off a cartload of food without comment and Naruto didn't even want to know where he obtained most of it. "Why is there something chewin-"

Too many people would get suspicious as to what an ANBU operative would need that many vegetables for, and even more people might hunt down Itachi for taking care of some kind of fugitive, considering the heavy suspicion he was under for murdering his cousin. "I am sticking to the story that he drowned, I killed no one." Something that Naruto still had a hard time grasping.

School didn't change much. "You failed this test Naruto," Iruka would whine.

He went in the morning and came back in the afternoon. He still hadn't found any friends and, to the brash boy, that was just as well. "I hope they all burn, those lousy traitors." He didn't need friends who would talk to him one day and ignore him the next.

"Ino, you liked that stink bomb I sent in the mail, hmm?" He wasn't exactly the most social person in the world, but giving how he grew up it was only excusable. Many times, people like Nara Shikamaru tried to get him to open up, but it just didn't work out. More often than not, Naruto would tell them that he had somewhere to be- "I got explosive plans"- which was true in a sense, but the Nara understood that Naruto just didn't like to hang around with the people in his class.

Then again, there weren't exactly a lot of people in his class that were worth hanging out with. Ino and Sakura were pretty annoying: "Wait for us, Sasuke-kun!" Kiba was a jerk; "You call that a henge?" The Akimichi did nothing but eat: "I am not fat!" The Hyuuga and the Aburame never said a word, and Naruto really, really, did not like the only one left- Uchiha Sasuke. "Bitch," Naruto would mutter when he thought no one was looking.

Despite knowing_ its_ true gender.

* * *

There was a strange warped passage that allowed Naruto to leave the attic. It was the same system that Itachi used to sneak Naruto into the house. Apparently the Main House of the Uchiha Clan had secret tunnels set up through all the walls.

However, this particular passage wasn't even known by the current clan head. Most of these passages could only be found by users of the bloodline eyes, and specifically those with the Sharingan. There were even a few that needed something even more powerful than the Sharingan- the next level of it, though Naruto never suspected that. He never would.

"C'mon you psycho, drop off my chow already," the blond would mutter.

Uchiha Itachi, in Naruto's opinion, was a strange person indeed. He didn't accept thanks, he hardly talked, and he spent most of his time brooding. It was like the teen was depressed all the time, and, try as he might, Naruto found that his jokes weren't getting to the teenager.

"Would it kill ya to smile once in a while?" Naruto once asked the gloomy teen when Itachi dropped off a bag of rotting oranges. "Ya know I am grateful and all, but sometimes I feel like ya got some kinda ulterior motive or somethin', know what I mean?"

Itachi didn't know what he meant, and that was the problem. "The dude's a robot," Naruto would whisper to himself during those cold nights, while he slept under jutsu scrolls, his makeshift blankets. The attic had a lot of them, piles and piles, with enough Ninjutsu to make him Hokage ten times over. If the qualifications that made somebody the Hokage needed one to master 1000 jutsu, the Uchiha had it down in spades. "I don't even know what half of these attacks do, hold on- this is one is pretty weird. Spit fire out of your an-"

With all these goodies, it was safe to say that Naruto did not only use the scrolls as blankets, but used them as learning tools as well. He didn't understand half of what was written, and performing the more dangerous versions of the scrolled arts was just asking for trouble; he understood that.

He wasn't incredibly smart, but he wasn't a complete idiot. Living alone in the streets had taught him to think realistically. As long as he stayed calm and thought things through, he could live to see another day. "Let's see now, Kage bunshin… this one doesn't look so bad, let's see if this works." It did.

The Kage Bunshin scroll was one that he had found completely by accident while looking up cloning techniques. The test for the genin qualifications was coming up and he needed to pass. If he could show the teacher that he could perform all three standard techniques, the bunshin, the henge, and the body switch, he would have a shot at being a Ninja.

At the age of eight, his chakra coils were still developing, but he had more chakra than most Jounin in the village, and the Kage Bunshin did not require that much control, if any. It just needed lots and lots of spiritual energy.

So it didn't come as a great surprise to one Uchiha Itachi when he walked in on a hundred Narutos cleaning up the attic- "hmm"- but it still didn't stop the brooding, angst-ridden teen from commenting. "You do realize that you're supposed to be discreet?" Itachi spoke, putting down the bucket of slop he found near a grocery store.

His contact for his daily vegetables, an outcast Jounin by the name of Tenzou was on leave, so he had to find alternate means of feeding his charge. "If the Fire-Kage tracks your location back here, I will be in trouble." Itachi's face didn't display anything as he said this. "I would appreciate it if you could show some restraint."

Naruto nodded. "I'll be careful, I'm not stupid. It's just that if I can pass the exam tomorrow, I'll be able to afford, well, stuff." Itachi didn't have to ask what Naruto meant by 'stuff.' The blond didn't own anything.

Watching the tricky boy as he wailed, sleeping in the gutters of Konoha, had shown the tall Uchiha just how poor the boy was. Itachi didn't normally take pity on anyone, but he had seen more of Naruto's lifestyle, or lack thereof, than anyone else in the village, and a part of him couldn't just stand idly by as the fox-boy died in the street.

"Not if I can help it," Itachi told himself.

"Kage Bunshin… that is a dangerous technique, if it went wrong, you could have died," Itachi warned him. He walked next to the boy and tapped a few of the clones. Naruto made a noise and touched his head. As if Itachi had tapped him on the side of the head, and not the clones. "Did you feel that?" Itachi asked. Naruto didn't know what to say. Itachi didn't elaborate and walked up to another clone, this time kicking it in the stomach.

"Ouch, what was that for?" Naruto asked, rubbing his stomach. "Look, ya didn't say I couldn't look through these scrolls. I thought you wanted me to look at them, the longer I am here, the more trouble ya could get into. If I can pass the exam tomorrow I'll be out of yer hair and ya don't have to see me again."

Itachi didn't say anything in response to that statement and slammed his fist into another clone, making Naruto wince. "You still don't get it, do you?" Itachi asked. "Don't you feel it?"

Naruto had a snarky reply to that, but closed his mouth. He thought about what Itachi said. The Kage Bunshin was dangerous, but why? He had lots of Chakra, everyone knew that. Itachi certainly must have known.

He rubbed his dirty blond hair, and tried to relax. If he calmed down he could find a solution. There were many reasons as to why the technique could be dangerous… but the clones hurting him when they were killed must have been a clue.

"I can feel them when they are destroyed?" Naruto asked. He scratched the side of his head with one of his small, crusty fingers. To him that did not make any sense, the school books never told of a clone bringing anything back to a user once it was destroyed. Certainly the fake clones they made back in school didn't have such an ability. "Does that mean that what they know, when they are killed, I'll know?" His mouth creased into a smile. "Oi, I'm right, ain't I?"

For a moment Itachi didn't comment, looking up at the cracks in the ceiling. "I wonder about that, Uzumaki, what do you think? Did you read all the instructions for that jutsu? Is that what it said on the scroll?" Naruto didn't have a response to that. The blond turned away, looking slightly guilty.

"Did you read the paragraphs on extensive brain damage? Did you read how it could destroy anything, from your frontal lobes to your neocortex? Did you even look at the large warning signs underneath the technique?" He didn't change his expression or voice inflection, but Naruto backed into the corner of the attic as Itachi stepped closer. There was very little light in the attic but he could see Itachi just fine, since the tall boy seemed to attract what light there was. "Does 'Forbidden' mean anything to you?" Itachi said this last in a whisper.

"I…um…sorry," Naruto slouched against the attic wall. It was dirty, musky, and dry… sort of like himself. "But I needed it, I didn't have choice. You've been nice to me, too nice. You could get in trouble for all this, and though I am glad ya took me off of the streets I can't impose on you. You're already under suspicion of killing yer cousin, and I believe ya didn't do it, but if they find me, that's just more reason to doubt you. People don't seem to like me in this town, and I don't know why. Argh, what I'm tryin' ta say is that I don't wanna be a burden, ya get what I mean?"

Uchiha Itachi knew exactly what he meant. He lowered his head and slumped down on the attic floor. He still wore the same ANBU uniform he always wore. Ever since that day he found Naruto, he didn't change into normal clothes. That wasn't due to Naruto of course; there was another reason altogether.

"Uzumaki, I must ask you to refrain from worrying about me. Please do not misunderstand my intentions. This is my job, this is what I have been trained to do. As long as you are alive my mission is complete. The Hokage may not agree with my methods and I know I will be marshalled if I am found with you here, but you do not understand my situation." He paused. "No one does. Do not think to understand what is best for me."

Naruto mulled it over. "So, er, can, um, I keep that scroll?" He pointed to the Kage Bunshin scroll. "There are some variations on the technique on there. Something called Explosion Bunshin, or somthin'… ya don't mind, do ya?" Hopeful blue eyes looked at dark pools. Itachi pulled out a sword from his sheath and started to sharpen it. He ignored Naruto's question for the next several minutes and thought about how to answer the boy.

"Exploding Bunshin… I myself cannot do more than two. It is not an easy technique to master. If you truly want to learn it, I will have to show you a certain location. Be warned that the place I will show you is named the Forest of Death, and believe me when I say that it is aptly named." The sharp sword sent out small streaks of sparks as Itachi continued to sharpen; he put it aside and looked at it sideways. "You might want to bring something sharp." He threw his sword at the blond, who easily caught it.

* * *

Sakura couldn't stop crying. It wasn't that there was anything wrong with her, per se, but when a bunch of girls the same age as her started to pick on the poor girl, the tears came pretty easily.

Haruno wasn't a tough girl by nature, far from it. When push came to shove, she hid the nearest corner she could find. Unlike Ino, the most popular girl in class, she didn't have the training and backing of a powerful clan.

Unlike Ino, she wasn't built for physical combat. Generations in labour trades such as carpentry and plumbing hadn't made her family the most physically capable Clan, not like the Uchiha or the Hyuuga, but there was a certain determination about the Haruno family members that allowed them to thrive in such a hostile Shinobi-filled village.

That said, it didn't change the fact that she was a still a small, pink-haired girl in a mainly Clan-based school. It didn't change the fact that before coming to school she hadn't ever had any Shinobi training, and she didn't even recall ever having any friends aside from Ino.

Sure, she picked on Uzumaki Naruto when the teachers weren't around, but everyone picked on Naruto, and Naruto could take it. The boy could take anything and still come out on top.

But that wasn't her. She couldn't stand being made fun of. "Nice forehead, it'll make a good target when the enemies capture you, billboard." Another insult, said by a girl about half a head taller than Sakura.

Her purple hair was cut short, her face in a perpetual scowl, and her skin tanned and sandy. The girl wore clothes similar to the ones Sakura wore, except hers were purple. Beside her were two other girls, each of them with the same devilish sneer as the first.

This was Ami, along with her cronies: Sakura's bullies. "C'mon, fight back. It's no fun if you don't do anything." She kicked dirt on the girl, crying on the grass. Sakura backed away, hoping that they would get bored and leave soon. She should have learned by now that it wouldn't be the case, but she didn't have it in herself to fight back. Not against three people, not when there were others around who could help her.

If she tried to punch Ami, the other two would just gang up on her, and beat her half to death. They were from Shinobi families, and they had influence in the school. Well, not Ami- Ami was from the same orphanage as Uzumaki Naruto, but unlike the filthy, repulsive Uzumaki, Ami took out her frustration on those weaker than herself.

"Oi, say something," Ami said, her twisted sneer so close to Sakura's soft face. Ami hated Sakura. Sakura was everything she was not. Sakura had family, Sakura was adorable. Sakura wore nice clothes. When she saw the pink haired girl she couldn't help but get angry. The purple haired pre-genin absolutely wanted to kill the girl for having things she, Ami, did not possess.

Growing up in the Konoha orphanage wasn't easy. The people she had to deal with were more likely to molest her than help her, and if one asked for seconds, they would be taken to the back of the building and left for dead.

No one complained- heck, no one could complain. There were laws that protected children in Konoha, but they were far from perfect, and most of them weren't even enforced simply because the Konoha Police Force, the Uchiha, always seemed to be too busy doing other things that few people were even aware of.

Unlike Sakura, Ami could make allies. An orphan couldn't go far without allies, and despite being a bully, she wasn't evil. She was only eight after all. The concept of truly hurting someone, destroying, or even murdering someone wasn't within her mental capacity, at least not yet.

But what made the girl hate Sakura the most was that she could easily talk to Uzumaki Naruto.

"Ami, up to your old tricks again, I see." A blond-haired girl, wearing a metal collar around her neck walked out from behind a nearby bush. Her short hair was cut into a 'mature' style, and her bangs were held back on the right side with a blue hairclip. Her skin was paler than Sakura's, and her clothes were in better condition than those of all of the girls combined. "One would think you would have learned."

This was Yamanaka Ino, the self-proclaimed most popular Kunoichi in her grade. Ami backed away from Sakura, who crawled slowly away from the stronger girl. The purple-haired girl smirked at the blonde. Ami took a quick glance at her friends and noticed they were backing away- they were going to leave Ami to fend for herself.

"Figures," Ami muttered. This happened all the time. She didn't have any real friends. Allies, she had plenty of, but genuine friends, zero. Not a single one. Poor, orphaned, friendless and somewhat ugly, that was the fate she had.

She wasn't a lost cause by a long shot, but she just didn't have the beautiful eyes other girls had, eyes like Sakura's, or even more exotic eyes like Hinata's. "This ain't your business Ino, why don't you just leave?" She clenched her fists. "Don't start something you can't finish, quit trying to be a hero."

Ino shook her head, smiling at the entire scene. Did Ami really think she had a chance against her? "C'mon Ami, you know you're not going to come out of this without a broken arm or two, if you leave now I'll ignore this." She gestured at Sakura, who was getting up. "Look, it's two against three now, and you know I can take the three of you on my own." Ino wasn't so sure about that, but it seemed like the right thing to say.

Ami thought that over, then scowled. "You're an idiot, Yamanaka." She turned to face her two allies who were glaring at the blonde- apparently that was the wrong thing to say. Ami smirked. "All right, show us what you got."

Naruto, of course, watched all of this from the top of the hill. "Juicy, a catfight," he observed. The sun was going down and he would have to return to the compound soon. But the entire scene in front of him amused him greatly.

"Let's see if I can get Iruka involved." He couldn't just stand by and let a catfight occur without him making things worse. He enjoyed making other people feel as bad as he did and what better way to make them feel like crap than to turn this simple brawl into something more?

Or at least that was his plan, originally.

Truthfully, the moment Sakura started to cry, Naruto started to have second thoughts about this whole blood bath thing. "Guh, I am getting soft," he muttered. He stood up and dusted off his dirty shorts. He'd been practicing the Exploding Bunshin no Jutsu all day in the forest.

He sniffed himself to check that he smelled okay. Okay, in his definition, amounted to smelling like feces, so it worked out fine for him. "Okay, time to break this up. Iruka would be on my ass if he ever found out I just stood by. Guy has some serious moral issues."

He ran down the hill and met the two groups. Ami was the first to look up at him in surprise, but turned away after she saw his scowling face. Naruto never understood why Ami could never look him in the eye.

Even back in the orphanage, she was always careful around him; though, to be fair, Naruto did once scare off some creep who was trying to assault her, but the boy didn't know that. He never would.

"Ora, ora, girls shouldn't fight. What would Suzume-sensei say if she saw this?" he chided, taking on his fake lecturing tone. It didn't help that he had a toothy grin on his face, a grin that promised trouble and violence to come. "Ya know she tells me I be a fine oustandin' gentleman, ya know? I got dem morals and stuff."

He came between Sakura and Ino, who both backed away from him. Not from fear, but from the sheer stench he emitted. Naruto picked at his muddy hair, and pulled out a leaf. "I aren't no snitch or nothin' but even I gotta say that pickin' on two gals ain't ma cup of tea, yo."

"Get out of here, Naruto, this doesn't concern you." Ami's eyes narrowed, but inside she panicked. Naruto had seen her pick on someone. This wasn't good. She didn't want him to see such a jealous and vicious side of herself.

Unlike most of the girls in the class, she didn't give a crap about Uchiha Sasuke, but if Naruto saw her like this… it just made her stomach upset, made it churn unpleasantly. "This isn't what it looks like, you don't know what's going on."

The boy sat on the floor with his legs crossed, still looking at her with that strange blue-eyed gaze he would occasionally get when he thought he had found something very amusing. "All I sees is someone hurtin' someone else. Believe it, I ain't just gonna let ya kick their asses, they ain't done nothin' to ya."

His smile didn't reach his eyes. It was crooked and nasty, like a monster from some kind of sewer. The two girls behind Ami didn't want to deal with something like Naruto. They knew his reputation. Their parents had warned them against getting mixed up with a devilish child such as himself.

"Run." So it didn't come as that great of a surprise when the two girls looked at each other, looked at the grinning, sharp-toothed orphan and then ran in the other direction.

Ami turned around to tell them to come back, but sighed when she realized they were already on their way home. "Naruto, you're a piece of work, you know that?" she sighed, turning to face the shorter blond whose dirty face didn't change expressions.

That smile of his was creepy to most people, but to her, it was sort of cute. "All right Haruno, you win this time." Sakura wasn't sure what she was talking about, but Ino must have caught something, because she smirked seeing the glance Ami sent Naruto.

Ino wasn't stupid. She knew Ami's feelings for the blond. It wasn't easy to decipher them, but reading human emotions was a specialty of the Yamanaka clan, as well the Hyuuga. "Get out of here, Ami. Unless you want me to tell Naruto-kun about your little secret." Ami's eyes flashed with anger and she looked as if she was about to say something, but decided against it and kept her mouth shut.

There would be plenty of time to plot her revenge against Ino another day. Naruto took this lull in conversation as an opportunity to dust the leaves off his shirt and stood up, looking at the sky. "Well, I did my good deed for the day, and just in time, too." He glanced up ahead to see Suzume-sensei coming their way. The curly haired woman had two girls beside her. "Naruto, have you been causing trouble again?" she asked.

Sakura, Ino, and Ami expected Naruto to explain that they almost fought, but the boy did something completely different. "Ora, I wanted to test out these weaklings, you know- on account of how weak girls are, ya know?" he told the teacher, his smile getting wider.

Suzume sighed and rubbed her temple. The boy caused trouble for just about everyone. Would there ever be a day when he would calm down and try to get along with everyone else?

"You do realize I'm going to have to give you detention. Again." She paused, fixing her glasses. "For the third time this week."

Naruto shrugged his shoulders at this, and pointed at the girls. "Mah, who cares? I still almost kicked all their asses, from here to Suna." That was an obvious lie, Suzume concluded. She suspected Naruto was trying to cover for the girls. Why, she had no idea. Maybe there was some good in the greasy orphan after all.

She decided to play along. "Very well, Uzumaki, come with me. I hope you don't mind cleaning up Hokage Mountain, for the second time this month." Naruto shrugged, and followed her. The girls behind them looked ahead at the boy with amazement.

He had stopped their fight, and kept them all from getting into trouble. "Without having to raise a fist," Ino muttered. Ami already knew of the boy's self-sacrificial habits, so it didn't surprise her that much, but it still didn't stop a blush from rising to her cheeks. "W-wait," she said. "Naruto didn't-"

Suzume turned to glare at her, full lips quirked into a slight scowl. "Anything you wish to say?"

Naruto stuck out his tongue from behind the tall woman. Ami shut her mouth, and shook her head. Sakura and Ino were still staring at Naruto in awe and the other two looked uncomfortable. They had been told that Naruto was bad to the bone, but he had been willing to get in trouble for them.

_Maybe he wasn't such a bad guy_, they thought.

Little did they know that Naruto could care less about what people thought.

He didn't like anyone. He especially didn't like girls. The thing about Naruto was that he had a reputation to uphold. The more trouble he could get into, the better. He had spent his whole life being blamed for things he didn't do, so he gave up on being a nice person.

Even after spending the day with his arms sore from cleaning up the tower, with Suzume-sensei nearby, marking her papers with a small smile on her face, he didn't regret his actions because the next day, the kids in class would have another reason to fear him.

Little did he know that this time, the girls would spread something nice about him for once, and that Sakura and Ino's feelings for the him wouldn't be the same again. "He still stinks though," Ino pouted, this time with a light rosy tint to her cheeks.

* * *

The vents of the Hokage tower were among the strangest places anyone could hope to travel through in the village, although to be fair, not many would even venture there. First off, they would have to be about the size of your average six year old, and secondly, if you weren't light enough, the vents would break and you would reveal yourself fairly easily. Lastly, one would have to be very careful not to make any noise, even ones that sounded like they were made by the reek that traveled down the rusty vents.

"Damn, this place stinks." Of course, Uzumaki Naruto was a natural candidate for traveling through the vents. There weren't many advantages in his life, and whatever he had, he would use. He missed seeing the old man. He hadn't seen the Hokage in years, not in person, but watching the old man from behind a screen was something of a hobby for the blond.

Sarutobi Hiruzen wasn't on the best of terms with Uzumaki Naruto, but that didn't mean that their bond was broken. The bond of grandfather and grandchild was one of the strongest, and theirs especially so.

The two of them may not have been related by blood, but that didn't mean they didn't think they were family. Like family, they would get into fights. Like family, they would break along the way, but come back together at some point. The old man was one of the best people Naruto had ever met, and the closest thing to a father he had. "He's my ojiisan."

The horrible stench of the vents filled his nostrils, but he continued to push ahead. "Guh, the things I do for love." The metal seams slashed at his wrists. The vents themselves weren't guarded very well, but they were covered in a type of Chakra that slashed up particles that were caught in them. Rats were a common problem in Konoha, after all.

Once Naruto had crawled to the place above the Hokage's office, he stopped and checked out what the old man was doing. "Still at that paper work, does that guy ever get a break?" He smiled at the sight, the man looked so peaceful.

Once or twice, the old man would cough into his hands and then wipe the blood on a nearby napkin. Those times, Naruto would want to jump down from the vents and hug him, but he knew he couldn't. He promised he would never ask the Hokage for help again, and he would not break that promise.

Naruto was about to leave the old man to his work, when someone came inside the office holding a giant scroll. The boy had never seen a scroll so large before and he couldn't help but stare at the tall man holding it. He edged closer to the rusty vent screen, and looked at the man carefully.

The man was tall- taller than anyone he had ever seen. He had hair as white as snow that went down to his waist. He wore kabuki clothing, and carried himself as an old-fashioned warrior would. He even wore strange shoes made of wood; they made him even taller. The man surveyed the office carefully.

"Nothing special about this guy, better get out of here," Naruto muttered. However, the man's first words caught his attention.

"Is Naruto all right?"

Curious, the blond turned back and pressed his face to the vent fencing, trying to see the expression on the old man's face. The Hokage of Konoha drew on his cigar and answered the question. "He's being looked after by Itachi. The details of his location are a bit sketchy but I trust he is in a safe place." The old man got up and glared up at the taller man. "I am more curious as to where you have been, Jiraiya."

Jiraiya had the shame to turn his face away, and look down at the floor. "Some things came up and I had to see them tbrough. There are some dangers outside of the village that I wasn't sure were real or not, and I had to confirm a few rumours." He knew that wasn't a good excuse, but he tried to use it anyway.

"There were stories of an organization moving and amassing large amounts of power. They call themselves the Akatsuki and they are after the hosts of the tailed beasts. I am not entirely sure why, and I am not sure how they plan to achieve this." He paused, and pulled a file out from inside his robes. "I can tell you with conviction that they are collecting the most dangerous fighters in all of the elemental nations."

The Hokage leaned back in his chair. "You haven't answered my real question, but I will hear you out just the same. Tell me what you know about this, tell me everything, and leave nothing out."

The more Jiraiya told his tale, the more terrified Naruto became. A sinking feeling in his stomach started to form, the more he heard about demon hosts. The tall man talked a lot. He talked about people who had demons sealed inside of them, all the vessels, rampaging killers, and the transformations that would be required to bring out the full power of the demons. Everything he needed to know about the Akatsuki and everything he would ever possibly have to remember about the tailed beasts and their hosts.

He shivered while Jiraiya explained to Sarutobi about the situation in the Mist, and the bloody rampages that eventually lead to the destruction of the former Mizukage, who was replaced by one of the hosts.

None of this made any sense in Naruto's opinion; specifically, none of this should have made him afraid. What did this have to do with him? Why was he suddenly so afraid, why-

"Then we'll have to make sure to increase security around our own host- Naruto must be protected at all costs."

And there it was. The reason behind his problems, the reason that the boy's heart wouldn't slow its beating. His fingers clenched so tightly around the bars that they almost bled. They lied to him. Every single adult in Konoha. All this time, he was a host of a great and powerful demon. It didn't take him long to connect the Kyuubi and himself, not after the conversation about the Chakra beasts.

He slowly crept out of the vents hoping that he wouldn't let his rage affect his chakra and get detected easily. "I still have to pay you back, old man."

* * *

Naruto was more than a bit shaken by the news he overheard. From what he gathered, there would be a group of S-class missing-nin that would be after him some day. No matter how Naruto looked at it, he didn't think he was going to survive this, not by a long shot. "I need to take things seriously."

If each and every ninja who was going to come hunting for him was as strong as a Kage, what chance did an orphan like him have? Not a snowball's in hell. The thought allowed him to ignore the rain pelting down from the sky.

He found himself once again in the slums of Konoha. There weren't that many clans that lived there, for good reasons of course, but there was always the Kurama clan.

The Kurama clan had the bad luck of having to endure living here. Years of producing weak-bodied Ninja had left their family with little money. Sure they still had their lands, and they still had manors located outside of the village, but inside the village was another matter altogether. Since they were a blood line clan, their safety rested on being able to thrive inside the walls of the Hidden Leaf.

Like the Hyuuga and the Uchiha, their powers made them capable of great destruction, and if left uncontrolled would lead to a chaotic and violent end to many aspiring genin. They stayed in the slums, but their location was somewhat north of where one Uzumaki used to live.

Naruto had, once or twice, snuck into the compound to steal food, but returned what he stole because the people there didn't exactly look wealthy themselves.

Today though, he had to go back and see the clan, if only because old habits died hard. He jumped over the fence of the compound and looked around to see if he could steal anything, mostly just food. Itachi would provide him something when he got back, but Itachi was finding it more difficult to consistently bring him food without people asking questions. "Especially not Yakumo's mother."

Naruto figured he would relieve Itachi's burden. The compound didn't have as much grass, since they couldn't afford to water the plants regularly, so instead they had sand and stone. It made it difficult for intruders to sneak into the main house, but Naruto was a special case. He was small and light, he could run at speeds not many could keep up with, and he had always had near-perfect hearing. "Sort of like a fox," he muttered bitterly.

He grinned when he finally reached the window, and, looking inside, found no one. Taking one step over the ledge, he climbed into the large wooden house, ignoring the fact that the compound's electricity had been cut off. "C'mon kitchen, it's been a year but I know where ya be." He stepped quietly on the carpet, and wiped off some of the grime on his hands on his pants. "Hopefully Yakumo isn't home, the girl's got a set of lungs on her."

Kurama Yakumo was the heir of the Clan; she was a pale girl with beautiful brown hair and strangely colored yellow eyes. Naruto didn't know much about people's looks, but he had to admit that she was by far one of the most beautiful girls he had ever laid eyes on.

She would look even better if she didn't scream for help every time she caught him eating food in their kitchen.

The girl tended to wear a kimono and walked at a pace that was oddly reminiscent of a turtle. Heck, a turtle showed more spirit than the girl. "Believe it," Naruto muttered, "that girl's not cut out to be a Ninja."

He had seen Yuuhi Kurenai walk around these parts to pick the girl up for training, but Naruto never understood why the raven-haired Jounin would even bother. It wasn't like she was a genius or anything. What could Yakumo do, aside from scream her lungs off when a little orphan was found lurking in her house?

Eventually he found the food he was looking for and decided to sit down and eat. The clan seemed to favour fruits and vegetables, and always the fresh kind. Itachi never brought fresh food- most of it was borderline slop. Every time the teen came back, he brought things that resembled more and more the trash he used to eat.

"It's like he's tryin' ter kill me," Naruto snorted. "Guess I owe you guys some apples… mmm, those were some good apples." The boy was about to leave when he smelled something.

Fire.

"Oh, shit!" he ran up the compound stairs and was amazed to see that the entire top floor was in flames. Taking off his filthy shirt, he ran to where he saw fires and started putting them out. "This isn't gonna work," he shouted, "Kage Bunshin!" A dozen clones came out from his sides and started repeating his gesture. "Oi, is anyone in there?"

Naruto didn't get a response, but he was sure there were people in the house. He raced through the flames, ignoring the throbbing pain it caused him and looked around the wooden compound. The wood was burning fairly quickly and things were turning black, but he didn't care. These flames looked like they were made with Chakra, meaning that they could only be put out with Chakra. "Kage Bunshin, oi, sacrifice yourselves, guys, there be people in here." He looked through each room, wondering if Yakumo was all right.

The image of the shy girl who was terrified to leave the house arose in his mind and he found himself running even faster. He finally reached the master bedroom and found a demonic-looking creature hovering over her parents. "Oi, Miss Uroko, what the hell is that?"

Kurama Uroko, Yakumo's mother, sat helplessly, watching as the kimono-wearing demon stepped closer to her. She couldn't move out of fear, and if she did, the monster might decide to go after her daughter who was still inside the house.

Uroko was a young woman, who looked similar to her daughter. Like her daughter, she had very graphic eyes, eyes that were both stunning and terrifying. Like her daughter, she had brown hair, but unlike her daughter, she was tall, regal, and much more plain-looking. That didn't mean she was any less attractive- she had her own appeal.

She clutched her necklace and chanted something, but was interrupted by the shouting of the blond. She turned her face to see one Uzumaki Naruto huffing and puffing, beside her door.

Her deep purple eyes widened. "Naruto! What are you doing here, get out!" She didn't particularly like the thief- no one liked kids who stole- but she didn't hate him either. She had seen how he lived and she felt pity and fear for him. Pity that he was poor, and fear that someday he would grow up to not be poor, and then everyone would be in trouble.

"Ma'am, what is that?" Naruto shouted, pointing his sweaty finger toward the towering creature. For some reason it resembled a Shinigami, now that he got a closer look, but it was not nearly as huge. "Oi, ugly, come and get a piece of this." The soot-covered boy pulled down a pair of week-old pants and showed the creature his tanned bum. Uroko wondered for a moment how in the world Naruto got a tan in that particular region, but opted to use the distraction to try and take a stab at the demonic-looking thing.

The creature ignored Uroko's jab and raced to face the last Uzumaki. Naruto had just about enough time to get out of its way and run down the burning hall. As pieces of his already-dusty pants caught fire, he tried to put them out with some more Kage Bunshin. It worked, but it made the creature reach him faster.

Uroko ran down the hall, in the other direction, to find her daughter in some kind of strange trance. She was both asleep and awake at the same time. "W-what is this?" She took her temperature and read her Chakra and found that she was channelling vast amounts of malevolent energy from inside. Whatever the creature was, its source was her very own daughter. "Is she possessed by a demon?"

"Oi, a little help here, Kage Bunshin!" shouted Naruto from the floor below. Uroko made the decision to grab her daughter and break through the window. The windowpanes were also on fire, but she decided to risk it anyway. She would come back for the Uzumaki later; right now her daughter came first.

Breaking through the glass was the easy part, but seeing tendrils of black demonic energy try and pull her back was making it difficult. She was about to use a water jutsu to slam them away, when a series of explosions forced the tentacles to come back inside the mansion.

Whatever Naruto was doing was working, because loud screams and demonic moans were coming from inside the building. She covered her ears as blasts and explosions rocked the compound. She watched amazed as every time a boom sounded, furniture would fly out of her mansion and into the streets.

"The ANBU should be here soon, hold on, Naruto," she muttered, running the opposite direction, going towards Konoha hospital. "I'll come back, I promise." Her daughter was slowly opening her eyes, and saw her mother wearing her night time kimono.

"Kaa-san, what's going on?" she asked, afraid. "I had a dream, there was a monster, it tried to take over my body-"

"No time to worry about that now, Uzumaki Naruto is buying us some time to get out of here. We cannot in good conscience allow his sacrifice to be in vain." She looked at her daughter and smiled. Unlike many woman in Konoha, Uroko didn't wear lipstick but looked all right just the same. "You know that child who you would always point the guards at?"

"Yes, I think I know who you're talking about. But mother, why would he try and help us?" From her memories, her clan had tried to beat the poor boy to death a few times, when he was caught stealing. Konoha law allowed for discipline, especially for thievery. "He doesn't even like us."

"Let's not be too quick to judge," her mother replied, and dropped off her daughter on the curb next to the hospital. The Kurama matriarch made a move to run back to her home.

She could already see Uchiha Itachi running down the street, wielding his Katana. If he got there first, there would be a bloodbath if the demon was still alive. "Go and get help, I have to make sure Naruto is all right."

She followed the faster ANBU, and reached her compound in time to see the final explosion as it shot the very roof of the building into the air, and howled in amazement as it flew up nearly fifty feet.

Naruto was nowhere to be found, but the large craters left behind were a clear indication that he was still around, and the constant explosions that sent dirt into the sky were proof that he was far from dead. "Naruto, where could you be?" Uroko asked herself. "Where is that thing?"

Groups were running from the other branch houses, wielding weapons. "What is going on?" they asked the matriarch for instructions, but Itachi was the one who took charge. He carried in his arms the blond haired boy and held him close, even taking off his jacket to cover Naruto's battered-looking body.

"He's alive." Uroko sighed in relief and leaned down to kiss the boy on the forehead. Naruto had just about enough time to smirk. "I blew it up, yo." He yawned. "Gosh, I am pretty tired, Itachi… sleep."

The ANBU nodded and within a moment he disappeared. Uroko turned around to look at the dead body of the demonic entity that had possessed her daughter in the very heart of her mansion. She turned around to face the groups of Clan members who were looking for an explanation. "I think Yakumo has more power than we originally estimated." She thought about what else to say, and smiled. "I also think we also owe Uzumaki a favour." What a brave boy he was. Almost like a hero.

* * *

"Mother, would you mind taking a look at his wounds?" Itachi asked, careful not to sound too worried. "I found him after that large explosion destroyed the main Kurama House. There were spikes and pieces of metal everywhere, and inside the rubble was Uzumaki. I tried to do the best I could in such urgency, But you know I lack proper medical training."

Mikoto took very little time to strip off whatever clothing was left on the Uzumaki, which was basically just his torn pants, and looked the naked boy over for wounds. Itachi leaned on the wall and mused. "Had the boy been awake, no would be able to get him to remove any article of clothing, the kid's just too shy for that sort of thing." That was one of the reasons Itachi was glad he was blacked out.

"My goodness, what happened to his fingers? They look like they were blown apart with fire, what could have done such a thing to such a harmless boy? Itachi, I want you to find whomever is responsible and bring them to justice. I don't think the Third would approve of anyone mutilating-"

"Mother, please. I do not think that happened. If you wouldn't mind, complete his treatment and I will make the Third aware of the situation. Right now, time is of the essence. If we don't do something soon he is going to lose his entire arm."

Itachi was more worried about the blood seeping from his nose. Kage Bunshin's most dangerous problem was the brain damage it could cause, and Naruto looked like he made some truly massive amounts of clones, and maybe some exploding ones.

Making the Exploding Kage Bunshin was like making a hundred of the regular ones, and they had much more violent effects. That was one of the reasons most Ninja never used the Exploding techniques- not because they lacked the Chakra, but because it could permanently destroy a person's prefrontal cortex.

"Stabilize him, please. I have to go get a surgeon. Wait for me; do not remove him from the house." The young man paused before leaving and turned his head. "Don't tell father."

He disappeared.

Sasuke's mother wasn't going to do either of those. She trusted her son's judgment, and just held on to the dying boy in her arms. He was breathing heavily and his eyes were barely open. He smelled like paper and grime, which she found odd- the scent of ink and scrolls were all over him, yet he was a person who skipped classes, according to Sasuke-chan. "There, there. Poor baby." She rocked him gently, watching as he groaned and came closer to her. He looked so harmless like this.

She couldn't understand how anyone would want to harm such a child.

He was so small, so thin, so light. "Why would anyone hate something so pure, an infant of Konoha?" The world was indeed a confusing place. It put a lot into perspective- most people were greedy and held onto so many trivial things in life.

Yet this boy she held in her arms wanted nothing more than life itself. He didn't crave money, power, or even immortality, like so many of her kin did; he wanted something much more basic than that.

"You're brave, aren't you, little guy?" She gently pried his fingers apart. Some of them had been melded together due to extreme heat and she was doing all she could so that the bleeding from his hands would stop. "C'mon, you can make it."

She hoped that someone would be able to regenerate his fingers, but without the proper stem cells, that wouldn't be possible. Stem cells in Konoha were expensive, since very rarely did people abort a fetus. Any child in Konoha could be easily used as cannon fodder in times of war. Plus, the civilians, unlike the Ninja, had morals. They didn't abort.

Naruto wasn't sure why he felt so good. Wherever he was, he couldn't see, his eyes wouldn't open, and they wouldn't move either. He must have hurt himself badly this time. The last memories he had flashed through his mind.

He saw the fight before him. He was going to die- the demonic-looking creature that distantly resembled Yakumo was going to devour him. It was going to devour him… until he started blowing everything up with his Kage Bunshin.

However, each time he used that technique it felt like his brain was going to explode. Every memory the Bunshin had went straight to Naruto, and Naruto had to experience being blown apart no less than a dozen times. He hadn't known that he could feel his neurons, but he was pretty sure he could feel the synapses and dendrites literally splitting apart in his head as the stress overcame them.

And yet he could feel his brain healing. Was that even possible? One of the first things he learned in biology was that neurons didn't heal. Brain cells could only split apart, and once destroyed they would never come back. That was why brain damage was so difficult to fix.

He tried to reach out for the softness that was enveloping him, and the more he reached, the more this softness wrapped around him. He felt so content, he felt so safe, and yet he was still a little afraid. Nothing in his life was meant to last, was this just another illusion? Slowly the connections in his eyes started to form- his nerves to his occipital lobes. He opened his blue eyes to a sight that surprised him.

"How are you, Naruto-kun?" Sasuke's mother greeted him with a dazzling smile. She appeared worried and was holding him close to her breasts which, if he was honest with himself, were fairly soft, like jelly. His head rested there, and he breathed in her vanilla scent. This was the first time anyone had ever hugged him and he wasn't going to let the feeling pass easily. He had earned it, after all.

"What happened to me?" he asked. He couldn't recall anything that happened after he blacked out in Itachi's arms. "Is Yakumo safe? What about Missus Kurama?" Mikoto didn't understand what he was talking about, but then realized that he must have been referring to the Head of the Kurama Clan's wife, and their daughter. "They are all right, from what I gather. There would a terrible uproar if either were hurt." Her lips quirked into a soft smile. "You saved them, didn't you?"

Naruto nodded his head, still feeling the headache, and not wanting to be away from the softness. He tried to move his feet, and he got a simple kick going. Good, his feet were working. He could make a run for it later. "I couldn't just leave 'em." He tried to think of more to say but came up short. "I knew 'em for a long time. The girl doesn't like me, but she ain't bad." He wondered how she was. He hoped she wasn't hurt.

"I am glad. So glad that you thought of others before yourself," she said. "Most Ninja would think about themselves before others. The mission is often what counts, but that doesn't change the fact that Ninjas cut their losses wherever they can. You didn't. You went ahead and saved someone at the possible cost of your own life. Someone who didn't even like you, if what you say is true." She realized something. "What about the father, what happened to him?"

"Dead. Saw his body when one of my clones gave back his memory." He rubbed his face against her chest, inhaling the vanilla scented musk. The mother gently tapped his head. "Couldn't save him. I tried." He looked hurt. "I really did."

"I believe you." She did. Despite what people said about Naruto, he wasn't a bad kid. Far from it; there were some things missing in his morals, and his hygiene could use some more work, but he was more of a human being than most would give him credit for.

She had seen him occasionally, wandering the streets looking for food. She had seen him train his heart out in alleys, and seen him grow into something powerful. He wasn't powerful in the typical, physical sense, but powerful mentally. He could endure more pain than most.

She put him on Sasuke's bed. Sasuke-chan wouldn't be there for the next few hours anyway. Meanwhile, he could get some well-earned rest. Either way, she had to make dinner before her husband returned. In her mind she was still impressed at the ability of the boy to do so much for that once-powerful clan.

Still, she couldn't tell her husband he was here. The takeover of the village would commence soon, and if the ANBU started to investigate her compound, they would find enough evidence to execute them all. "Uzumaki, you're trouble. But for who, I am not certain."

Fortunately, her husband never arrived that night. Unfortunately, she hadn't been able to warn her daughter pretending to a be a boy, Sasuke, that there was another occupant sleeping in her bed, and the girl got the shock of her life when she saw a near naked Uzumaki Naruto spread-eagled, out like the dead. "Looks like I am going to have to explain the birds and the bees a little early." Mikoto got to work.

* * *

"You don't look so good Sasuke-kun, is there something wrong?" Sakura asked, hearts in her eyes. Sasuke wouldn't stop blushing today. Every once in a while he would glance at the village pariah, then grit his teeth and look away. Sakura was terribly confused and wanted to know what was wrong. It was Sasuke- he was supposed to be invincible!

They were standing outside of the Academy, watching as some of the guys played hide and seek. Apparently the other kids weren't going to let Choji play since he was too fat, but Shikamaru pitched in for him. Of course, that wasn't enough.

Naruto, who was covered head to toe in bandages, came along. Sakura groaned, things always got worse when Naruto was around. If you were a boy, you would most likely find yourself in grave peril, being beaten up becoming a near certainty.

Especially if you made fun of his height. He was indeed sensitive about that.

"Oi, not letting the tubby play cause he's a bit big? You scared he is just better than you?" Naruto teased, smirking in his lopsided way, showing off a sharp set of yellowish teeth. "What's a guy gotta do to play a game of Ninja around here without some punk tryin' ta stop 'em?"

"He could lose some weight, for one." One of the participants muttered. Naruto turned to face the culprit, Kiba, and kicked some dirt in his direction. "What? It's true, ain't it?"

"Yeah, and you could take a bath, you smelly asshole." Someone commented on Naruto smelling almost a bad as Kiba, but shut up when the dog boy glared at them. "What, that's also true, ain't it?"

"Regardless what the truth is, I, for one, would like to commence this activity. Playing this game will get rid of the stress that might hinder me in this exam. Though I have a suspicion that I will not be able to be able to complete the Kawarimi, like the rest of you," Shikamaru said.

Most of the boys nodded. The only person who could do the body switch was Naruto- only that orphan had enough Chakra to pull it off. "Oi, Naruto, I think you're up first. Think we should get inside?" Ami asked, walking onto the playground with some of her friends. Many looked at Naruto with interest. He was going to try out for the exam for the second time. Only Shino and Sasuke had applied this year. Everyone else thought they needed more practice.

Eventually, they all went inside the classroom and waited for the rest of the participants to finish their exam. Shino and Sasuke both couldn't do the Body Switch and failed. Sasuke glared at Naruto on the way in and even nudged him towards the floor. Naruto got up, and continued to smile his sharp-toothed grin.

Most thought his smile was rather creepy. He did the required two jutsu and then it was time for the third, the clone.

Suzume laid back on her seat and was about to mark an 'x,' when a whispy, no, solid clone appeared before her. It took her sheet out of her hands and brought it to the Uzumaki. Naruto took out a pen from his pocket and signed on the paper. He put a check. "So this means I pass, eh?"

Iruka's jaw dropped. He looked at Suzume-sensei, who smiled at him with her full red lips and shook her head. "The most unpredictable Ninja in Konoha." She sighed. Then looked down at Naruto. "Very well, from this day forward you're a Genin of Konoha, Uzumaki Naruto." She was sure the boy would pass, so she didn't mind saying this. "Wear that headband proudly."

For the first time in Naruto's life, his smile didn't look scary. "Thank you." He bowed. "Arigatou."

But that still didn't change the fact that there were people out to kill him. And it didn't change the fact that he knew that. Time was running out. It was a dog eat dog situation. Kill or be killed. He had to take them down as soon as possible.

Before time ran out.

* * *

**End**


End file.
